The Payments System Board of the Reserve Bank has welcomed a proposal by an industry led committee to introduce a ‘fast payments’ solution for Australian consumers.

The proposal, prepared by the Real Time Payments Committee (RTPC), seeks to deliver a fast payments solution that would allow close to immediate fund transfers on a near to 24/7 basis by the end of 2016.

The RTPC welcomed the RBA’s decision, saying it will now build new infrastructure that will enable fast, data-enriched and simply addressed payment servies for Australian businesses and consumers.

The Committee Chair Dr Jennifer Fagg said, “The Payments System Board’s support of the proposal is a testimony to the industry’s collaboration and cooperation, working closely with the Reserve Bank,  to improve the Australian Payments System.”

The business architecture will be layered, comprising:

  • general purpose infrastructure, including a central clearing utility and simpler addressing solution, to be built collaboratively by financial institutions and connecting to real-time settlement at the Reserve Bank; plus
  • overlay services that can be tailored to particular payment needs, starting with an initial consumer-oriented “convenience” service.

 “Splitting infrastructure and services greatly increases the potential of the system.  We can promote efficiency, integrity and broad access through the general purpose infrastructure while seeking to  foster competition and future innovation through overlay services,” said Dr Fagg.